


A Time for Change

by Shadaras



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, EU/Legends canon is totally an influence, Gen, Introspection, Obsession, Poor Life Choices
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 13:08:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5457566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadaras/pseuds/Shadaras
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kylo Ren survives the explosion of Starkiller Base, thanks to General Hux. He's a little bit overwhelmed by his encounters with Rey, and contemplates them as General Hux takes him to a safer place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Time for Change

She had reached back and seen more of him than he had seen of her.

Lying in the belly of his _Upsilon_ -class shuttle, Kylo Ren contemplated his life. For starters, his face still hurt. So did his abdomen, though that was less offensive to him. General Hux -- well, his stormtroopers -- had dragged him out of the snow and into the shuttle without an anaesthetic, only applying that as the shuttle spread its wings and soared into space, safely beyond the shattering Starkiller Base. Nobody had yet mentioned the ragged line crossing his face.

Kylo Ren was fairly certain he’d keep that line, a reminder of her and the borderline addictive eddies of the Force that surrounded her. Oh, the First Order had access to medical technology that could remove it; lightsaber cuts were always clean, and bacta would heal the burns quickly enough, to a point where a surgeon could reconstruct the lines of his face. Just because he could didn’t mean he wanted to. This way he could keep her with him wherever he went.

This way, every time he smiled, every time he narrowed his eyes, every time he screamed, he’d feel her moving with him, resisting him in every way.

He would need to rebuild his mask. That had died along with his fa-- Han Solo. Along with Han Solo. Perhaps she had done him a favor, marking him this way, so that his troops would always be reminded of what lurked beneath the lines of his face.

Kylo Ren smiled, faintly, feeling the pain through a fog, and let the fog claim him as his officers sent them into hyperspace. When they emerged, it would be time to plan.

*

The dreams he had were muddied by pain and anaesthesia. He remembered flashes, remnants from a narrative written in pain and carefully destroyed:

_\--the flash of a lightsaber, green as new growth, metal fingers flexing on the metal hilt--_

_\--screams, so many screams, he had never expected how much they would scream--_

_\--his mother is crying, and she is alone; he reaches out but there is nothing there--_

_\--the scent of earth and ashes, the feeling of metal under his fingertips--_

_\--she did not kill when she had the chance--_

*

He woke with a cry, face burning with pain, the memory of her eyes boring into his echoing still. The unit of stormtroopers on-board turned towards him jerkily. He waved them off, furious not with them but with himself, and the Force lashed out, knocking one of them off-balance.

“Sir--”

“Quiet,” Kylo Ren snapped, turning away from Hux before he had to look at the rebuke in his almost-friend’s eyes. With a grunt, he heaved himself upright. The anaesthetics meant he didn’t feel the fullness of his body’s pain. The Force meant he could move as if his body didn’t hurt at all. He strode to the back of the shuttle, well away from where the unit of stormtroopers sat, carefully averting their eyes from him, and wished he could throw himself into the seat or destroy something. In space, nothing exploded nearly as satisfactorily.

Instead, he dropped into the seat with a restrained hiss of pain and glowered at Hux, who had followed him.

“Sir,” Hux said, his voice clipped and hands folded precisely behind his back. Only the way his hair wasn’t perfectly smoothed betrayed how unsettled he must be to the eye, though Kylo Ren could feel his wary worry rustling around him. “We will be in hyperspace for another day before we reach the medical facility.”

Kylo Ren grunted.

“In the meantime, we have portable bacta units. None are of a size convenient for your blaster wound, unfortunately.” He smiled dryly. “Fortunately, you are in no danger of dying, and the anaesthetics will continue working until we reach the facility.”

“Anaesthetics are enough,” he growled, and his face hurt with every syllable. With effort, Kylo Ren restrained himself from throwing a punch at the wall, and merely tightened his fingers on the edge of his seat. “Is there anything else to report?”

“The Resistance destroyed Starkiller Base,” Hux said, eyes fixed on a point above his head. “The planet, and all resources upon it, are lost. A third of our personnel is known to have survived on shuttles and other craft, and shall reconvene using Contingency Plan Eta, Variation Three.”

Kylo Ren looked up to glare at Hux. “We are not following that plan.”

“Your wellbeing is necessary to the continuation of the First Order.”

It was impressive how robotic Hux could sound when he tried. Kylo Ren almost wanted to laugh, except that would hurt him thrice over right now, and he wasn’t sure he could stand that when there was nothing to make hurt in his stead. “My wellbeing, as you have said, is assured.” He reached out with the Force, tugging on Hux until the general met his eyes. The coils of fear reflected well in the general’s unblinking eyes. “You do not need to worry about my health. I will heal.”

Hux swallowed. “You will heal more quickly with medical personnel attending to you.”

“I will sleep more with medical personnel attending to me,” Kylo Ren hissed, voice contained out of rage alone.

The stormtroopers were doing very well at pretending like they couldn’t hear any of the conversation. Kylo Ren made a mental note to commend them on their performance, when he escaped this ship.

“Noted, sir.” Hux blinked once. “Will you allow the personnel to examine your wounds and apply bacta patches?”

He nodded once and released his hold.

“Very well.” General Hux straightened and turned back to the stormtroopers. “We will briefly stop at this facility to take on additional supplies. Please have calculations for Contingency Plan Eta, Variation Three, ready by the time we arrive, to ensure as quick a departure as possible.”

“Satisfactory,” Kylo Ren said, hand clasped in his lap as he leaned forward. His side ached as he moved it. He ignored it.

“Sir,” Hux said again. This time, when he turned to Kylo Ren, there was... Kylo Ren raised his fingers, reaching quietly out to Hux’s mind, trying to pinpoint the source of concern. Images flashed through his mind, quick as thought, until they settled on an image, seem from a security camera:

That woman was climbing the wall leading into the depths of Starkiller Base, unconcerned by either height or the stormtroopers who clearly hadn’t thought to look for her there.

Kylo Ren flinched without thinking, and Hux staggered with the Force pressing in on him. Kylo Ren released him with a twitch of his fingers, and said, “She must join us or die.”

General Hux took a deep breath, and his eyes flickered shut, becoming flat and helpful as transparisteel. “It will be as the Supreme Leader wills,” he said. “May I be dismissed, sir?”

“Isn’t it always?” he muttered. Hux didn’t appear to hear his comment. He was good at that. Kylo Ren grimaced, letting the lightsaber wound on his face flex with the pain of it. “Dismissed,” he snapped.

Hux bowed precisely and strode to the front of the shuttle, heels striking the floor with clear and resonant clicks.

Kylo Ren leaned back in the chair he had claimed and reached up to caress the wound running across his face. Yes. She would join him, and with her strength... He smiled, not caring about the pain. With her strength, they would rule the galaxy, as Darth Vader had sought and failed to do with his son.


End file.
